Houston authorities have charged a 49-year-old man with multiple counts of capital murder after deputies discovered the bodies of five children and three adults in a home where the man was arrested.

Before they could enter the residence, David R. Conley allegedly carried out a tense standoff with deputies that eventually ended when he was coaxed out of the home by hostage negotiators without incident, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Once inside, deputies discovered the gruesome scene.

“He restrained, shot and killed eight people,” Celeste Byrom, an assistant district attorney said during a court hearing on Sunday in which Conley was ordered held without bail, according to the Chronicle. Conley gained access to the home through an unlocked window, the paper reported.

Thomas Gilliland, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, told the Chronicle that the relationship between Conley and the victims remains unclear.

The incident began when authorities arrived at the home around 9 p.m. Saturday to perform a welfare check, according to the Chronicle. When nobody answered the door and authorities learned that Conley was inside and wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault of a family member, deputies surrounded the home.

Gilliland told CNN that deputies surrounding the home decided to enter when a child’s body was spotted through a window.

Conley allegedly began firing a weapon inside the residence, forcing the deputies to pull out and call in a high-risk operations unit, similar to a SWAT unit, and hostage negotiators to the site.